We don’t usually talk about games we haven’t played but this one deserves some mention based on theme and educational mechanics. Trust us, you’ll see why.

Core Gameplay Overview

Lovelace and Babbage is a game surrounding mathematical operations. You manipulate numbers using a list of available operations, such as “multiply by 2” or “+/- 10”. You do this to manipulate your number to match numbers on the cards displayed.

Another board shows the list of operations available, such as, +\- 1, +\- 10, multiply/divide by 2, swap first and second digits, etc.

Each player gets a sheet of paper (the programming pad) with a starting number of “55”. In real time, all players race writing down which mathematical operations they will use to modify their number “55” to match one of the numbers on the cards. Then again to match another number on a different card. In the first round they can use 5 operations to match as many number cards as possible. This creates a list of operations, or an “algorithm”. First person done flips a timer giving the other players limited time to finish as well.

In the example above you can see I used operation “A1-” which subtracts one from 55, which achieves a match with the card “54”, then I use operation “A4 divide” to bring it to 27 (which doesn’t match any card), but I then use operation “B1+” to add 10, matching card “37”.

Next we go through each person’s first line of code to see if they correctly used an operation to reach a card number. If two or more players reached the same number at the same time on any line of code, only the fastest player to complete their entire algorithm achieves the card. Other players have a “malfunctioned” algorithm.

Everyone goes through each line of code one by one to see who achieved each card first. In future rounds you have longer algorithms (more lines of code) and more mathematical operations available at your disposal.

Why do we want to achieve the card numbers? Achieving a card grants you one of 6 symbols (check it off at the bottom of your sheet) and you get points for having collected the most of a certain symbol by game end. So in the end it’s a set collection system for scoring points.

Thematic History: Ada Lovelace, the first programmer

The theme focuses on real life historical mathematicians by which the game is named after. More primarily focusing on the works of female mathematician, Ada Lovelace, who worked with Charles Babbage on the first general-purpose computer. She published the first algorithm carried out by a computer and is this considered one of the first computer programmers.

Our Thoughts

What really catches our attention is the simple implementation of coding basics and mathematical operations into the gameplay. We believe a game like this has strong educational applications and can see this implemented as a high school activity. In elementary school we often had Connect 4 tournaments because it encourages planning ahead, anticipating future moves, and overall critical thinking. We can easily see a game like this being used in tournament settings as well. Particularly in high school math classes.

Both of us at Little Meeples are engineers by education and highly value games embracing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). As mentioned, we have not played the game but highly anticipate introducing this to our children as they get older. Don’t get us wrong, this is not a “kids” game. There is more depth to the game than in our brief explanation of the core gameplay. Enough complexity to keep any adult entertained (as long as they like math). In fact, this game will get more love from adults than children, but without a doubt this is the type of game we would want to play with our kids as teens.

Lovelace and Babbage is currently on Kickstarter, behind a well established game designer and publishing company. The project is already funded, but if you find it as interesting as we did feel free to support them. We have no connection to the game or it’s designers but the ideas behind the game spoke to us so much we just had to share.

For the longest time we have been looking for a kids game named Pyramid (aka Fluch der Mumie). It was first published in 2008, but quickly went out of print and became very difficult to find. Luckily our patience paid off as Brain Games bought the rights to the game and redesigned it in their Ice Cool penguin-themed universe of games. We couldn’t wait to get our hands on it, so much so that we asked a friend to pick it up at a convention earlier this year, before it officially released to stores (which should be very very soon).

Pyramid of Pengqueen is a one-versus-many game, where one player plays the Pengqueen Mummy, hunting down the other players as they try to steal treasures from your frozen pyramid.

Gameplay Overview: Roll and Move, Collect Treasure, Don’t get Caught

Game play is simple. It’s essentially a roll-and-move, but with several dice using a Yahtzee mechanic. You can roll your handful of dice and choose which one to use. If you don’t like the choices you can roll them again, up to 3 total rolls. However, one side of the die has a mummy face, which when rolled causes you to lose that dice to the Mummy player, granting them an extra movement on their turn. So, there is a little bit of risk in using extra rolls. If you lose too many dice, you can always ask for them back, granting the Mummy player and extra movement for each die returned to the players. So you have to be sure you are far away before asking for them back.

At the beginning of the game you receive a number of treasure cards with images matching spots on the game board. You must land on each item to collect it, then announce what you have just collected (giving the mummy their only clue to find you). If you get caught, you lose 1 of your 3 lives and start again at the pyramid entrance again. Collect all your treasure items to win. Unless the Mummy player catches you too many times (the amount of times the mummy has to catch players depends on how many people are playing).

Gameplay is simple enough, right? Like a game of capture the flag. Here is the interesting part, the game board is standing vertically so that the mummy player is on one side and all treasure hunters on the other. Each player piece is a magnet that sticks to the vertical board. The mummy player can only see and move their own piece on their side of the board. The mummy cannot see where the other players are until the mummy lands on their spot and the magnetic pieces stick together. The treasure hunters move their pieces on their side of the board, but they can also see the mummy move around on their side (via the magnets), so only they know how close the mummy is getting to them.

Impressions

Theme & Components: The art style is fun and vibrant. Although the idea of a mummy chasing you around can be scary, the cute artwork keeps it from being too scary for younger kids. My 4 year old is scared of a lot of things, but isn’t afraid of the artwork here. The cat & mouse theme with mummy and treasure hunters works wonderfully. In fact, it is the theme that engages the kids the most. The nail-biting suspense and tension as the mummy gets closer translates very well into strong emotional responses. The strong emotions keep them fully engaged throughout the whole game and results in constant requests to play it again.

Age Range: Because it is a one versus many, the age range is very flexible with one grownup around. Our 6 year old plays easily independently, and even plays the role of the mummy. Our 4 year old plays well as a treasure hunter with another treasure hunter providing some guidance. This is one of the rare games I have seen both of them pull out and play without us around.

Strategy/Luck: Dice games always have luck, but the Yahtzee mechanic of re-rolling and losing dice mitigates the luck and adds some strategy to rolling. Using your dice wisely is very important. You don’t want to give the mummy player too many dice because they will be able to move further and get closer to you. The game provides a good amount of push your luck and teaches the consequences of risk. We also find that a lot of counting occurs throughout the game to keep track of how many spaces you need to get to your treasure, and how many spaces away is the mummy, and does the mummy have enough movement dice to reach you. We found that for young ages like 4-6 years old, it was great practice for simple addition. Also, developing a spatial understanding is key to winning. You may not want to go to the item closest to you because it would be easier to get caught, instead go to the furthest item and make the mummy chase you across the whole board.

Duration: Gameplay length can be easily modified by determining how many treasures the players must collect, giving you the option for a quick game with players with shorter attention spans.

Player Interaction: The mummy player will feel separated from the rest, but listening skills are key here. Paying attention to what the other players are doing and discussing will assist in finding them. On the other side, treasure hunter players will constantly be discussing strategy of what item to go for next in ways to draw the mummy player away from them.

Verdict: Suspenseful game play keeps them wanting more

Pyramid of Pengqueen provides an emotion-filled experience of tension and accomplishments. The balance of cooperative and competitive play keeps everyone involved and constantly deep in strategy. It works wonderfully for a group of players of varying ages to play together. It even works extremely well for a group of grown ups to play without the kids. We have been waiting a long time for this one and now it’s finally here … and here to stay.

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* Pyramid of Pengqueen is a soon to be released game (as of the posting of this article). If your store does not have it, ask them to contact Luma Games, the exclusive Canadian distributor of Brain Games.

Troll & Dragon is a push-your-luck game where players take turns rolling dice to collect as many diamonds and gold before they are caught by the Troll or Dragon.

Gameplay Overview: Roll Dice, Collect, Stop before it’s too late

During a player’s turn they go through two possible phases: stealing diamonds from the troll, and then possibly stealing gold from the dragon.

The game box has two rooms, the troll room with diamonds and the dragon room with gold. The player starts in the troll room and rolls 4 troll dice. For each diamond face they roll, they collect a diamond. When a troll face is rolled, that die is locked and can’t be rolled any more. The player can re-roll over and over again, collecting as many diamonds as they can until all 4 dice are trolls, at which point they lose all their diamonds to the troll. Players can stop at anytime, ending their turn and keeping the diamonds they have collected up to that point. The dice also have a door and a key face. If the player rolls both the door and key, they can stop and enter the dragon room. They secure all the diamonds they have collected, put away the troll room dice and pick up the 2 gold dice.

In the dragon room they must now roll the gold dice as fast as they can, collecting any gold every time the dice show a gold face. The gold dice has mostly blank faces and a couple of gold faces. While the active player is doing this, the other players are taking turns rolling the 2 dragon dice, declaring out loud when each dragon face appears. Once the dragon face appears on both dice, the active player loses all their collected gold, unless they declared “I’m Leaving” before the 2 dragon faces show.

If the active player fails to declare “I’m Leaving” before the dragon faces show, they lose all their collected gold to the other players. Also, the Troll is terrified by the dragon and drops any diamonds he collected from previous player turns. These dropped diamonds also split among the non-active players.

The game ends when a room of treasures is empty and all players count their loot; diamonds are worth 1 point and gold are worth 3 points. (Flip over your player board for some help counting the golds in 3s)

Impressions

Theme: The theme is fun and exciting as players choose from a selection of characters. The art is incredible and strongly lends to the overall experience. The theme jsmust seems perfect for a push your luck mechanic.

Components: Like our previous review of a LOKI game (SOS Dino), the components are incredible. The diamonds and gold are a joy to hold and you really feel like you collected something precious. The dice are chunky and colourful and everything fits into a compact box making it great for travel.

Age Range: The box says 7 and up, but as you can tell by the gameplay description, the game is very simple to understand. We think the age suggestion is more focused on emotional readiness. As with any push-your-luck game, you have to be mentally prepared for a strong dose of disappointment. If you collect a lot of treasure and have some bad luck you can lose it all, which can be heart-breaking at any age, but young gamers won’t be able to handle the disappointment as well. Our 6 year old handled it quite well, but it took a few tries for her grasp the idea of pushing her luck.

Strategy/Luck: There is hefty amount of luck in this game, but it’s upfront about it so everyone goes into it knowing that. The good thing is that every age is on equal footing and anyone can win. In fact, our 6 year old often wins because she plays conservatively, stopping once she sees one dragon die. Where as I will push 1 or 2 more rolls thinking what are the chances both dragons get rolled consecutively. I often leave empty handed and my daughter laughs at me.

Duration: The game plays extremely quick. Although the rules indicate to stop when a room is empty, you can determine when you want to stop to make it a shorter game. Or even agree upon a certain number of turns before you start.

Player Interaction: We absolutely love how the other players work together as the dragon against the active player. This is he highlight of the game. It gets everyone involved even when it’s not their active turn. It also provides a way for non-active players to collect treasures if they are able to wake the dragon in time. It’s rare to see a push your luck game involve other players so well, so its a refreshing twist.

Verdict: Fast-paced trills and roller coaster emotions

Push-your-luck games often don’t go over well with young children. Adults love it. They love the suspense and drama of risking it all and treading on thin ice. However, kids take disappointment very personal and it can be off-putting. Troll & Dragon makes it easier to handle the frustrations of risk and loss, providing a great learning opportunity for kids to understand general risk management. In a game like this bad luck happens often and evenly among all players. Witnessing bad rolls happening to another player helps them understand risk and how to deal with it. It provides ample opportunities to practice managing emotions which is one of the largest obstacles parents face when playing games with their kids.

Overall, the game is a fast-paced thrill ride for adults and kids. Older children will enjoy it best. While younger children will need to play with a parent at first to get used to the push-your-luck style of gameplay. In the end, the experience will make them better overall gamers, but it might be an emotional start.

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* Troll & Dragon was generously provide for review by Luma Games, the exclusive Canadian distributor of Loki Games. If your local store doesn’t carry Loki’s line of games, ask them to contact Lumagames.ca

SOS Dino is a cooperative game where players move 4 Dinos and their baby eggs to safety up in the mountains before erupting volcanoes and crashing meteors destroy the land. The theme provides a tense and exciting narrative for the kids to play out their rescue mission. Mechanics are simple and easy to grasp for children as young as 4 years old, making this a fun game for a wide range of ages.

Gameplay Overview: Draw a tile, place it down, move a dino

Playing SOS Dino is smooth and turns move along quickly. A player simple draws a tile from the bag, which consists of either lava tiles or meteor tiles.

The lava tile has colours that denotes which volcano to place it next to, extending the path of the lava, limiting the board area for the dinos to move. The meteor tile has a symbol that matches one spot on the board where it will crash, killing any dino on that spot.

The tile also has iconography that indicates what your next action will be:

a) Draw another tiles
b) Move one or two dinos (the back of the tile indicates one dino that cannot be moved this turn)

Impressions

Theme: The theme really shines as the kids are invested in saving all the dino and eggs. The components play a big role since each dino is incredibly cute. The kids really want each dino to be safe and any time a dino is near danger they clutch their teeth in suspense. It really keeps them engaged through the whole game.

Components: As mentioned, the components are fantastic. Not just the toy factor of the 4 dinosaurs. The 3D cardboard for the volcano and mountains give it a really good table presence that just screams to be played.

Age Range: Although the box says 8+, all aspects of the game was easily grasped by our 6 year old. Enough so I could comfortably say the box could say 6+ on it. Our 4 year old was also fully engaged and understood what had to be done on each turn. She just didn’t catch on to the subtle strategies of creating a safe path for the dinos.

Strategy: The game is highly tactical. Taking what you get and working with it he best you can. Being able to direct the path of the lava flow allows you to plan ahead your dino movement so it has as safe a journey as possible. Passing through a “possible” meteor crash point provides a bit of push your luck. Take the risk of getting squished by a meteor or take the longer way around. Difficulty can be increased by adding more obstacles to the board. Scores are given at the end for how many dinos and eggs were rescued. We have yet to get a perfect score and rescue everything, which is a good indication of game design. In a sense, every game ends with a win (safe dinos and eggs) and loss (perished dinos and eggs), feeding the need to play again.

Duration: For us gameplay lasted over 30 minutes which we consider to be on the long side for us. However we did play with children below the suggested age, so it often took longer than it needed to be. With that said, the kids never tired of it. When the theme is this strong it really keeps them going. Also the increasing sense of danger keeps them focused.

Verdict: Engaging, nail-biting suspense for a wide range of ages

SOS Dino was a hit even before we played it. Just opening the box excited the kids and they eagerly wanted to start playing. Whenever we suggest games to introduce to new kid gamers we focus primarily on theme. SOS Dino’s theme is its strongest asset, making it perfect to draw in a kid to the board gaming world. Cooperative games also play a strong role in our recommendations because it removes the competitive aspect of gaming that can lead to frustration and disappointment in very young gamers. It’s the cooperative nature that allows us to play SOS Dino with our 4 year old without any hiccups. Any game that allows for a wide range of ages to play together has a longer shelf life in our house.

Overall, SOS Dino isn’t very deep on strategy but it’s incredibly high in fun and player interaction. It gets a high recommendation from Little Meeples!

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* SOS Dino was generously provide for review by Luma Games, the exclusive Canadian distributor of Loki Games

Wreck Raiders is a deep sea treasure hunting game where players collect items during their dives to display in museums and large aquariums. At the time of this posting Wreck Raiders is in it’s last days on Kickstarter, but we were lucky enough to play a prototype copy lent to us by the designer, local to the Toronto, Canada, area. Here are our impressions after a preliminary play.

Right off the bat, we love it. It fills a gap in kids board games that we feel has plenty of room to grow. We consider this game perfect as a stepping stone to transition kids from typical “kids” games to full “grown up” games. It’s like taking the training wheels off. Wreck Raiders provides a few game mechanics that we absolutely love in heavier games, including worker placement (placing your meeple to take an action), dice drafting (selecting your actions to build a strategy), and set collection (long term planning to achieve a goal). Let’s first briefly describe how the game plays.

Gameplay Overview: Roll Dice, Select a die, place your meeple to collect a treasure item, place the treasure on your personal board

A round starts with the starting player throwing all the dice into a box. They can then select a die where the number indicates where they can place their player piece (meeple) on the main game board. There are four wreck sites, so where they place their meeple determines which type of treasure they will collect. They will take that treasure and decide to place it on display for the museum, or place it into their vault for the personal collection. These two areas allow you to score points in different ways.

The Museum: There are museum cards on display requesting certain combinations of treasures. They are open for anyone to grab on a first come first serve basis. Once you meet the requirement, you can take the card to score points. You fill your museum from left to right, and if you match the exact order on the museum card, you gain bonus points.

Personal Vault: The vault fills up from bottom up in stacks. On the back of each colour type of treasure is a specific treasure. You can get points in two ways: either by filling the row with the same colours (same wreck site) or by filling the row with unique types of treasures. If you qualify for both requirements you get both points.

Having two locations to place items provides a decision point when collecting treasures. If you collect a duplicate item that already exists in your vault, you can choose to place it in the museum instead, or place it in the vault and forego the bonus points for having unique items. You’ll start to strategize how you want to display your treasures.

Placing your Meeple: When you place a meeple in a spot next to another meeple, the owner of that other meeple gets to take a treasure too. You both help each other! If that neighbouring meeple is one of your own, you will gain two treasures! So sticking close to each other helps everyone. If a player is already on a spot you want, you can kick them out. However, that’s not a bad thing for the other player because they go to the beach where they collect bauble tokens that can be used in a few ways (we will get to that next).

Bauble Tokens: Bauble tokens can be traded in for various things like changing the value of the die you selected, or collecting and extra treasure at a wreck site. They can also be used to buy aquariums in the market. Bauble tokens can be collected when you are kicked out to the beach. They can also be collected at the start when the dice are thrown in the box. The inside of the box has spots indicating bauble tokens. If a die lands on that spot, the player who selects that die on their turn also takes a bauble token.

Aquariums: You can trade bauble tokens in for aquariums, collecting separately the bottom, middle and top of an aquarium. The top of the aquarium will indicate bonus points you get for the type of bauble tokens you spent to get the aquarium sections.

Game ends when a certain number of museum cards have been collected and the most points wins!

Impressions

Components: We played with prototype components but they all looked and felt great. The kickstarter campaign already achieved a number of upgraded components including meeples shaped like deep sea divers, shaped bauble tokens, and fancy dice.

Game Mechanics: Wreck Raiders brings together game mechanics found in the heaviest of euro games (worker placement, dice drafting, set collection) but keeps them simple and provides a theme and integrates everything smoothly. We think the theme brings it all together allowing for younger players to easily grasp all the concepts and run with it.

Age Range: The box says ages 10 and up, but we were able to play with our 6 year old and she easily grasped what she needed to do on her turns. She didn’t have the solid foresight to plan in advance what she wanted to collect, but she did well taking what she needed now and working with it. She enjoyed sending meeples out to collect things, display them, and trade in baubles to buy the beautiful aquariums (stellar artwork added tremendously to the appeal).

Player Interaction: Worker placement games often have limited player interaction, but here placement of your meeples was critical in helping yourself as well as others. Players were always paying attention to see if they collect bonus treasures or bauble tokens. Having other players benefit from your actions creates a family and kid friendly gameplay experience. There was no “mean” actions and there were always options on your turn. We liked this aspect of the game the most because it made the game enjoyable for all ages.

Strategy/Replayability: All the different choices for gaining points (museum displays, personal vaults, aquariums) adds to lots of variability and replayability. You can attempt different strategies in different games, so it never feels the same.

Verdict: Solid game mechanics, lots of decisions, great player interaction, and a theme that brings it all to life

Wreck Raiders is a huge hit for us. Our oldest always wants to play the “grown up” games that we play and for many of them she can keep up. Here is a game that works as a good transition from typical kids games and an introduction to heavier strategy game mechanics. There are very few games that fit this niche right out of the box. It definitely falls under that category of games that both kids and adults can enjoy together. We don’t recommend this game for beginners, but if you’re kids have been playing a lot of games and show interest in your own games, this would be a perfect place to start. We highly recommend Wreck Raiders for the experience child gamer.

If your kids love making silly goofy faces, Emojito is for them. In fact, we think Emojito is for everyone! This game was very recently nominated for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, a German award that is easily considered the penultimate honour for a family board game to receive. Is it worthy of the nomination? Let’s see.

Gameplay

Emojito’s rule set is very simple. The active player draws one card of a character whose face displays an expression full of emotion. The player then has to copy that face to tell the other players what he/she sees. That card is then mixed with 6 other cards and are laid out on the board such that a number is next to each card. Each player then secretly votes for which card they believe matches the face that was expressed by the active player. Reveal the votes and see who was correct. For each correct guess a player moves their player piece forward a space on the track. Each lap provides a player with a trophy card and you can determine how many trophies to win the game.

As player pieces circle around in the hexagonal board, the different locations let the player know if they are to:

Provide a facial expression along with a sound

Provide only a facial expression

Provide only a sound

The game also comes with a cooperative variant where everyone plays against the game. In this case there is only two player pieces (one for the team and one for the game). Each correct guess moves the team’s player piece one space forward. Each incorrect guess moves the “game’s” player piece forward. This is our preferred mode of play.

Impression: Great for ages 4-99!

Our kids have been requesting to play this game non-stop because it’s just so incredibly fun. Everyone is making silly faces and laughing at each other. Kids don’t care so much if they get it right or wrong, because everyone is just having a good time. We don’t even keep score, we just play as long as we feel like it. This is one of the reasons we love family board games. They provide a great bonding experience as everyone sits in a circle and interacts with each other. Will it spark some of the cognitive benefits we have previously talked about, such as critical thinking? No. But it does more than its fair share in developing social skills and family bonding.

One of the main draws for us is that this game works for anyone. The box says 7+, but our 4 year old handles the game fine (once she got used to keeping her card a secret until after the voting round). We also played it with her grandfather (who has never played a game with them). Imagine playing a game with a 4 year old and a 60+ year old. Even more so, her grandfather doesn’t speak English. So we were able to play the game completely language free, because laughter transcends all language barriers. We can’t put a value on that, so this game will stay with us for years to come.

Verdict: Big happy face emoji!

The ease of play and accessibility gives this game legs. It will be played for years to come. Take it for what it’s worth, an extremely enjoyable experience for the family. We can’t imagine anyone not having a good time playing this with their kids. We haven’t played the other two games nominated for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, but Emojito is a winner for us.

Little Action is unique in that it is designed particularly for ages 2.5 and up. It’s rare to find a game that is aimed at that age but Djeco is no stranger to understanding toddlers. Djeco is well known for producing top quality toys and puzzles for kids that stimulate imagination and social development. Their “Little” series of games are aimed to introduce basic game concepts to 2.5 year olds and up.

You may think a 2 year old is too young to play board games and I wouldn’t fully disagree with you. Games require a certain level of attention and focus which can be a challenge at that age (as well as ages 3-4). But that is why this series of games are so great; they provide an opportunity to practice the development of a toddler’s focus and direction. Games at this stage isn’t about competition or deep critical thinking. It’s about growing accustomed to gaming basics such as rules (understanding there is a certain way to play), taking turns (social cooperation), and winning/losing. It’s a stepping stone for future games that will be one step higher in complexity.

The “Little” series of games by Djeco each focus on a typical mechanism found in many games. Little Cooperation introduces everyone to working together to win. Little Circuit introduces a race game or “roll and move”. Little Memo introduces memory games (a mechanism that we always say is great for kids). Today we are looking at Little Action, a dexterity game for toddlers.

How to Play

In Little Action you draw one card which depicts action you must complete with the included animal toy figures to gain a ribbon award (1 point). Whomever collected the most ribbons wins. Some examples of the actions include:

Balance a figure on your head

Balance one figure on top of another figure

Throw a figure into the box lid

Throw and knock off a figure perched on top of an upright box lid.

Pass a figure around your body (behind your back and in front of your tummy) 3 times

Throw a figure into the air and catch it

Components :: Huge Toy Factor

The components from Djeco are always amazing. We particularly love their jigsaw puzzles because the pieces of cardboard are so thick they are incredibly hard to warp or damage. You can even see our infant, N, putting a few into his mouth and they look perfectly fine. The figures are wonderful rubbery toys that the kids often play with away from the actual game. They definitely make the kids interested in playing the game over and over again.

Our Thoughts: Wonderful for ages 2.5 to 5

The dexterity aspect of Little Action makes it more widely accessible than other games in the series. At the lower age range we would remove some of the throwing tile cards because they are the hardest for toddlers. Possibly only 2 of the 6 types of actions would be achievable. But over time we can slowly reintroduce them back in the game. Even at age 4, our middle child, Z, would have trouble with some of the balancing tasks. And our eldest who just turned 6, E, could do all tasks easily but had some difficulty with tossing an object in the air and catching it. What was refreshing was that it was a rare game that all the kids could play simultaneously.

If you have kids that are anything like ours, they are always stumbling and running into walls and dropping things. Dexterity is definitely not their forte. I love how Little Action encourages them to practice simple tasks to improve their hand-eye coordination. The components are sturdy and stimulate their imagination. Little Action is a keeper for our family.

]]>http://littlemeeples.com/board-game-review/little-action-review-djeco/feed/0Path of Play Day and International Tabletop Dayhttp://littlemeeples.com/events/path-of-play-day-2018/
http://littlemeeples.com/events/path-of-play-day-2018/#respondTue, 24 Apr 2018 11:54:50 +0000http://littlemeeples.com/?p=456April 28th 2018 is International Tabletop Day! It’s a day to promote the hobby where everyone makes an effort to fill their day with games.

Path of Play Day is also on April 28th! Path of Play is an initiative to raise funds to support families living with Autism. At Path of Play they believe that when you play … you connect.

Autism is a neurological disorder that typically affects a person’s ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to the environment. It is a life-long developmental disorder that affects the individual’s ability to understand what they see, hear, touch and taste. It often manifests itself at ages 2 to 3 and is prevalent in 1 out of 67 children in Canada and the United States, making it the most common neurological disorder in children. Children affected by it have difficulties communicating, learning and developing social skills. They have to work to learn normal patterns of speech and communication, and how to appropriately relate to people, objects, and events. As a result, individuals with autism may respond in unusual ways to everyday situations and changing environments.

Unfortunately these characteristics often lead to a separation from society. We have previously discussed the strong social benefits of board games for children. These benefits are even more apparent in children with neurological disorders by creating an inclusive space, making it easier for children to connect. Playing games breaks the barriers between children with and without autism (or other neurological disorders). Like we always say, board games bring people together. All people.

Path and Play Day raises funds for families of autism by providing subsidy programs for early intervention, providing games to families and therapy centers, as well as the creation of communication apps for non-verbal individuals. If you would like to provide a donation to help families you can do so through the Kids Table Board Gaming fundraising team that we are a part of. Even if you can’t, you can help raise awareness by using the hashtag #PlayingForAutism when you share photos of any games you play on International Tabletop Day.

Wishing you all a day full of gaming!!!

]]>http://littlemeeples.com/events/path-of-play-day-2018/feed/0Losing and Winning Gracefullyhttp://littlemeeples.com/children-board-game-tips/losing-and-winning-gracefully/
http://littlemeeples.com/children-board-game-tips/losing-and-winning-gracefully/#commentsTue, 17 Apr 2018 02:57:44 +0000http://littlemeeples.com/?p=243At a very young age, children have the urge to win as a way to display a sense of mastery. Whether it be dressing themselves or reaching a higher shelf, they just want to show they can do anything we adults can do. During game play, a successful move or an early lead gives them great pride. At the same time, when luck doesn’t fall their way it can bring strong feelings of sadness. This may be the hardest thing for a child to wrap their head around. Why play a game if in the end we lose? It’s a valid question and being prepared is the best way to get the message across. Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to convince them that games are fun regardless of the outcome.

Here are some tips for teaching our kids to lose (and win) gracefully.

Choose the Right Game

Choosing the right game for YOUR child is critical. This is one of the main reasons we began Little Meeples; to show our friends and everyone else what games are out there and how they are carefully designed to create an enjoyable experience, win or lose.

Throughout all our posts we often mention cooperative games. These games are perfect to gradually expose children to the feelings of winning and losing. Whatever the outcome, you all experience it together. It’s a great opportunity to show by example how we should react to losing and winning.

When you do play competitively, always remind them that everyone wins and loses at some point. It is difficult for our older daughter to lose gracefully so we would remind her of a game where she won and others lost but everyone still had fun. Then we would suggest playing a game that she may be particularly good at. When you have several children, alternate between games based on each child’s strength so that they would each have a turn at practicing how to win or lose gracefully. For example, our oldest daughter seems to always win at Go Cuckoo while our younger daughter is good at Monza. We would try to play both games in one sitting so both kids would have a chance to win AND lose.

Make it Fun

The only way to cope with loss is to have fun. Create excitement around much more than the final outcome by focusing on the theme/story and the successful decisions they make with each turn. Make the game play as enjoyable as possible. Be as animated as possible. Laugh out loud, maybe sometimes maniacally. Your attitude will dictate your child’s attitude. For them to have a blast, you will have to appear to be having the absolute time of your life. Children are social mimics, they learn through behavioral imitation and YOU are the strongest source of that lesson. We want our children to know that playing this game is the greatest, even before the final outcome is known.

Embrace their Emotions

Board games are loads of fun, but they can also be frustrating. Classic children games often involved a hefty amount of luck. When that luck doesn’t fall your way, it can be mighty disappointing. For a child, that feeling is amplified. Each successive time it happens, the frustration grows exponential.

Sometimes it is very difficult for the kids to absorb their disappointment/sadness over losing and there is nothing wrong with that. Acknowledge their emotions. They don’t have to shut those emotions off. They just have to learn to cope with them. A child’s ability to cope with emotions is very dependent on their developmental stage. It can be tempting as a parent to proclaim it’s just a game, but certain children have yet to fully understand their own emotions. When a child responds to a death in the family we wouldn’t insist that it’s “just the way life works”. Understanding that an emotion is normal is the first step to developing coping mechanisms for it.

Discuss your emotions with the kids. Let them know it’s ok to feel the way they do and teach them how to respond to those feelings. Emphasize how fun it was to play a game even when you lost, especially how fun it was to play with THEM. They need to know that it’s not the game that is fun, it’s the time you spend together that is fun and the reason we play.

We also want our children to understand how it makes others feel to play with someone who may sulk or cry when they lose. It can take away from the fun (just as much as a gloating winner can). It’s ok to have those feelings but don’t assign blame to the winner and remember the fun that was had playing the game together.

Don’t forget to provide a healthy dose of big hugs!

Communication is Key

Constant communication is critical to getting ahead of powerful emotions. Make sure to open a dialogue before, during and after each game.

Before – Set expectations for the game. Remind them that there will be one winner and it’s ok if it’s not them. Remind them that we play to learn and to have fun, not that we play to win. And remind them how we should act if we do lose, as well as if we win.

During – Highlight mid-game strategies. Discuss your own in-game decisions and why you are doing them. This will show them game strategies that they can slowly absorb. When someone does a great move that pushes them forward point it out and be generous with the high-fives. Positive reinforcement is key here. Any good behaviour needs to be emphasized. At the same time, if someone falls behind, remind them that it’s still early. Discuss ways their luck can turn around. Provide ideas or imaginative stories of their character in distress to make the situation more engaging. We want to encourage them to continue to play and to not give up.

After – Discuss your experience. Talk about things they did well during the game and why it may have helped them win. Casually suggest decisions someone could have made to help them do better next time (but don’t focus too much on what they did to make them lose). Most of all, make it clear that you had fun (especially if you lost) and remind them it’s the journey not the end goal that matters. Emphasize that you enjoy their company and you’re not there to find out if you win or not.

The way you communicate will depend on the age and experience of your child. For older kids, you can focus more on strategy talk to help them grow and develop stronger critical thinking. However, for younger kids focus more on the experience to encourage future plays, the strategies will come later so maybe don’t dwell on it for too long.

Let Them Win

Sometimes we as parents lose on purpose to model how to lose gracefully, more so when children are very young. It helps to make a game out of how funny it can be to lose. For example when James was playing Monza with the kids, his dice rolls were so terrible that the kids reached the finish line before he was even halfway around the track. James would laugh at how terrible he was doing. The kids were very empathetic but also laughing with James. This showed the kids that the objective is to have fun together. And fun can be had even when losing.

Don’t Let Them Win

As much as letting a child win can help boost their self-confidence, we can’t be too easy on them. We want to give them the sense of perseverance and earning a win, especially at older ages when they can handle the string of losses. If they lose at a game many times, that eventual win will feel so much more satisfying. Even at younger ages losses are opportunities to practice their coping mechanisms. It gives them a place to let those feelings pass and the emotions will become less intense with each loss.

There is often conflicting views regarding letting your children win at board games. Balancing wins and losses with your children depends on the personality of your child. You know best how they respond to certain situations, so any decision you make will likely be the best decision.

Display Proper Sportsmanship

It can be tough to teach kids how to win gracefully when they are so happy about winning they start dancing all over the place. However this is also the best chance to teach them about empathy. Try to get them to see other players perspective and how they feel to have lost and to have that loss rubbed in their face. We often tell them it must feel so nice to win but remember that other people may be feeling bad about losing. Remind the winner that no one would want to play with someone who makes a big deal about winning because they make others feel terrible about losing. Also encourage them to tell the other players that it was lots of fun and that they all played a good game.

The losers need to display sportsmanship too with a “Good game, you played very well” and hand shakes (or high fives) all around. It will take longer to get them to do this one.

Role Play

Since children learn by example, sometimes we have to show how it feels to be on the receiving end of a sore loser (or winner). Imagine if a grown up started to cry after a loss. Imagine if a grown up stomped off mid game because they were currently last. Throw an overblown hissy fit! You’ll be surprised when your children tell you “It’s just a game!”

Deep down children know how they should act, it just takes time and practice to apply the right coping mechanisms. Seeing your exaggerated “poor” emotional response will be a good reminder and a good teaching moment. Ask them “how does it make YOU feel when I act this way.” Ask them “what should I do when I lose?” They will then help make a plan of how to control your emotions. When they make good suggestions, reinforce it!

If you have a child who is an obnoxious winner, feel free to go overboard when you win. They need to know the effect such behaviour has on people. And remind them how much better it would be if you just gave a high five and said “good game.”

Conclusion

Ultimately games are another avenue for us to flex the parenting muscle and help our children learn to become more resilient to life’s ups and downs. It’s not easy to help them manage their emotions in both winning and losing but hopefully some of the tips above will help you guide them. Every child is different and their emotional control is both age and personality dependent. YOU know your child best and most likely will know the best method for YOUR child to conquer this hurdle. Never give up and keep on gaming.

Race to Build Your Sushi Tower!

Kid Rating: 3.5/5 || Parent Rating: 4/5

Maki Stack is a dexterity game where players race to be the first to build a stack of sushi related components. Game play is simple, splitting players into two teams of two. A card is flipped that shows a specific stack configuration of the sushi related wooden shapes. The two teams must then match that tower … but there is a twist. The back of the card indicates two game modes to make the task more difficult.

Chopsticks mode – As a team of two people, each player uses one of their fingers to pick up and stack pieces matching the tower depicted on the card. Each player’s individual finger represents one of the pair of chopsticks. They work as a team coordinating their fingers to carefully beat their opponents and build their tower first.

Mask mode – One player puts on the blindfold and builds the stack under the verbal direction of their teammate.

That’s it! Sounds simple? Yes it is. Blue Orange Games have been known to put out games with simple rules that are just addictively fun. Dr Eureka, a Blue Orange hit, is a favourite of ours and Maki Stack adds perfectly to that line of games.

The Kids Love it

From a child’s perspective there is a lot to love. The components are fantastic as always from Blue Orange Games. Included are big chunky wooden maki rolls, soy sauce bottles, and wasabi dipping bowls that the kids love to play with after they are done with the game. It’s a smooth transition from “game” time to “sushi store imagination” time. Also, they don’t over-do the number of components. With just 5 pieces to stack, the game doesn’t get overly complicated with crazy configurations. Instead it relies on the odd shapes of each piece to create a level of difficulty.

Although the game is best with two teams competing, it can also be played without the racing aspect with just two players working together to complete their goal. This makes the game accessible to ages much younger than 7. My youngest daughter, at just under 4 years old, was able to do both the chopsticks mode and blindfold mode with me. It was great in promoting teamwork as well as for improving dexterity control for my younger daughter. The fine muscle control to hold up one side of the maki piece is surprisingly challenging, but doable. Mask mode allowed the kids to practice spatial reasoning. My 6 year old still confuses her left and right, and this was absolutely perfect for her to get a grasp on relative positioning. Whether she was directing my movements or blindfolded herself, it was great to see her build the association between words and direction.

Lastly, gameplay is super fast with each task only taking a few minutes. You can vary the game length by setting a number of cards to go through. Play as long or short as you want!

The only caveat with playing Maki Stack with younger children (under the recommended age range of 7), is the tendency to peek under that mask. The mask is made of a flexible foam that can leave a gap around the nose bridge making it easy to peek by positioning the angle of your head. My 4 year old couldn’t resist the urge to peek; completely understandable at her age. My 6 year old would peek at times, but did put an effort to resist temptation. Fabric eye masks might have worked better and I might use a sleep mask with the game for only the kids.

The Adults Love it Even More

Oddly enough, I think this game will work better with adults than with kids. Something about dexterity competition that makes adults turn into children. Just like Jenga, Rhino Hero, Animal Upon Animal and Dr Eureka, adults can’t withstand the urge to show who is best at completing tasks with their hands. The team based race is what makes this work. Each team is trying to get it done as fast as they can, which leads to mistakes, which leads to laughter from the spectators. The game rules includes some variations to adjust difficulty, such as mini-chopsticks mode which forces players to use only pinky fingers. Or even chopsticks mode where one player wears the mask!

You can’t take the game too seriously. It’s a fun activity where winning or losing is the last thing to make the game enjoyable. It works wonderfully as a group party with drinks in hand (sake anyone?). Perfect for home or at a board game cafe. Probably not so good at a sushi restaurant.

Final Thoughts :: A Game for Every Age

We think this game is a great addition to a family game shelf. It works great for a large range of ages with easy ways to scale it for young children. Having it while my kids grow works perfectly because they can transition from toy play, to casual play, to competitive play as they get older. It doesn’t make itself out to be more than what it is, a great filler to occasionally bring out for 15-20 mins of fast chaotic laughter-inducing fun. A great family level game that can double as a late night short party game.

During the game testing with the children there were some laughters mixed in with some accusations of cheating when peeking happened. These accusations did hurt some feelings and had to be managed and reframed to keep the game fun. In the next article we will go over some tips on how to help kids follow the rules, resist the urge to cheat and win and lose gracefully. Stay Tuned and be sure to comment below to share your thoughts!

Maki Stack was generously provided by distributor Ilo307 . Other than receiving the game we were not paid or compensated in any way. The review and comments provided herein are entirely our own and are independent from all third parties.